Most industrial and municipal processes require water treatment facilities to treat effluents returned to the environment. Such facilities typically represent a significant investment by the business/community, and the performance of the facility (or failure thereof) can seriously impact ongoing operations financially and in terms of operational continuity.
Moreover, not all effluent treatment requires the same technologies. Industrial effluents (such as is found at coal bed methane facilities or oil production sites, for example) all have different particulate, pollutant and/or biomass content inherent to both the industrial processes as well as the particular water and soil conditions found at the site. Municipal requirements would likewise vary depending on desired end-of-pipe quality and use (and again depending on the feed water present at the site). Given the expense of full-scale water treatment technology deployment, it would be foolish to plan and build a facility with treatment stages not needed to address the particular problems to be encountered and outcomes desired at the particular treatment site. Thus, accurate site specific evaluation of particular water treatment site requirements and treatment alternatives in advance of treatment plant construction is desirable.
Mobile water treatment facilities have been heretofore suggested and/or utilized to establish water treatment for particular circumstances (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,972,216, 6,464,884, 4,383,920 and 5,547,584 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0033363). These facilities, however, are typically end use facilities and employ a predetermined set of water treatment regimen. Likewise, transportable mechanisms for previously established water treatment requirements and/or utilizing particular water treatment mechanisms such as reverse osmosis have been heretofore suggested and/or utilized (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,244,579, 5,632,892, 6,120,688, 5,741,416, and 6,228,255, as well as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0104153). Such mechanisms tend to be limited both in application and adaptability.
At present, treatment plant design and upscaling is based on laboratory/bench scale test tools for small and low risk medium-sized plants, and traditional pilot test tools for higher risk medium-sized and larger treatment plants. Laboratory/bench scale test tools serves only as an orientation test. A successful laboratory/bench scale test will generally demonstrate technical treatment feasibility only. Presently known pilot test tools are often quite limited in scope and are typically based initially on laboratory/bench scale tests, with ongoing pilot design refinement essentially requiring pilot plant redesign for each iteration. In essence, a correctly designed pilot study attempts to duplicate the operating conditions of a proposed full-scale treatment system as closely as possible with suitable components. Higher levels of pilot refinement are thus mostly limited by cost considerations.
Therefore, stations and methods directed to evaluating effluent treatment requirements and plant design options at proposed treatment sites that may vary considerably in terms of effluent conditions and desired treatment outcomes could still be utilized. Moreover, improved treatment technologies adapted to this and other uses can always be utilized given the criticality of provision and maintenance of clean water.